A couple of days ago, Huffington Post Live held a real-time live discussion called “Should We Regulate Home Schooling More Carefully?”[1]
I was one of the guests. And there was another scholar-researcher, a homeschooling/unschooling mom, and a graduate of homeschooling. The question for me in this article is this, Does research matter to researchers and the public in general?
The mom
was articulate and made some very good points. She argued against more government control of homeschooling. The young woman who was home educated, and who is now a university graduate student, explained how she finished homeschooling as a very good reader and writer but wishes she had learned more math and science.
Each Has His Beliefs
Dr. Kunzman argued for more government/State control of private homeschooling in states where homeschoolers are free. Did he, however, offer any research
evidence that this should be done? Did he offer any empirical evidence that government control of homeschooling will increase children’s learning? No, he did not.
Instead, this scholar agreed with me that a philosophical issue is at work here. He claimed that there are three “interests” involved, those of the
government/society, the parents, and the child. He thinks that someone other than the parents has to protect the interests of “our young people.” That is, he believes the government should decide whether children are being correctly educated. Therefore, he is actually arguing there are only two stakeholders, the government versus the parents.
“Our” Children
This professor and other academics, policymakers, and drivers of public opinion and molders of college students’ minds hold that children are “our children,”
collectively. It is as if they think we 235 million U.S. adults, together, own the 74 million minors and we adults, collectively, should control the education of the minors, as a group.
That is, they claim authority over the children and believe they must convince the government to create controls (that they call
regulation) to mold and shape children so that they learn the “correct knowledge” and “right skills” to make them “good citizens” by age 18.
This is an old, old philosophy. But the belief that the government should control the education of children who are not in a State/public school is contrary to the classical
liberal and free tradition of America that says that parents and family have the authority and responsibility to educate and raise children.[3] The belief that the government should control a child’s education also clearly contradicts the scriptural one that gives the duty and authority over education to parents, with accountability to the church or other freely chosen
associations.
If Only We Could “Regulate” Children
Again, the belief that the government should control a child’s education is not new. For example, French law professor, philosopher, and sociologist Jacques Ellul explained in 1965 that for the Marxist, an “… ‘appropriate education’ … is to teach children a Marxist catechism, to give them a Marxist conception of the world in history and science” (p. 283).[4]
A professor who was the founder of the North Carolina public schools wrote the following:
In these schools the … habits of subordination and obedience [should] be formed. …
Their parents know not how to instruct them. … The state, in the warmth of her affection and solicitude for their welfare, must take charge of those children and place them in school where their minds can be enlightened and their hearts trained to virtue. (p. 46)[5]
Some who want the government to control the education of children are particularly notorious. Consider the following:
When an opponent declares, “I will not come over to your side," he [Hitler] said … "I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already ... What are
you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.'" ….. he [Hitler] declared, "This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”[6]
Some might object to me bringing up such quotes and historical facts. However, once a person philosophically cedes any control over a child’s education to the government/State, then one cannot draw a clear and meaningful line past which that control shall never go. Dr. Kunzman argued for “modest” government control, “a middle ground of sorts” regarding regulation. One must
remember, however, the fallacy of moderation. This is the mistaken assumption that the position in the middle of two extremes is necessarily the right one to take because it is the middle view. If it is wrong for the government to control children’s private education in a free nation, then one must not compromise with that position.
On the HuffPostLive show, I pointed out that in a free nation, the government/State should not be controlling (regulating) private education. Not Catholic schools, not atheist private schools, not Jewish schools, not homeschooling. Homeschoolers do not take their neighbors’ tax dollars and therefore should not be accountable to the government (the people at large). They are accountable to their friends, churches, and extended family members and private associations in
which they choose to participate.
Any Research Evidence?
But now, finally, to the issue of research evidence. The professor offered no empirical evidence that government control of private homeschooling has ever or will ever increase homeschool students’ learning. The graduate of homeschooling offered no empirical evidence that government control will help homeschoolers’ learning in general.
They did not offer such evidence because there is none (of which I know). To the contrary, research shows no correlation between the degree of government control of homeschooling and the children’s academic achievement.[7] There must be at least a correlation in order for anyone to argue there might be
causation.
Further, I pointed out, there is very high government control of public schools and its students and yet multiple thousands of public school students – year after year, decade after decade – do not become literate or economically self-sufficient upon leaving high school. If and when the government can show
that control (regulation) guarantees that public/State high school graduates will be able to read, write, do math, and be economically self-sufficient, then maybe those who want the government to control private homeschooling will have a leg on which to begin making their argument.
Its’ Elementary
As one might say: It’s elementary, Dr. Watson. Those who believe the government should control the education of children in private homeschooling need both empirical evidence and sound philosophy to convince people in a free
nation of their viewpoint. For now, it appears they have neither.
--Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research
Institute
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Endnotes:
[2] Every person, whether a researcher, journalist, academic, policymaker, judge, carpenter, or nurse, has a worldview or weltanschauung. Examples of worldviews are atheism, Buddhism, Christianity/scripturalism, communitarianism, critical theory, Islam, metaphysical naturalism, Mormonism, queer theory, Roman Catholicism, scientism, socialism, and statism. [3] Rothbard, Murray N. (1999; originally published 1971 in magazine The Individualist). Education: Free and compulsory. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute; and, retrieved January 1, 2010 from http://mises.org/books/Education.pdf. [4] Ellul, Jacques. (1965). Propaganda: The formation of men’s attitudes. Translated from the French by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner. New York, NY: Vintage Books, a Division of Random
House. [5] Richman, Sheldon. (1994). Separating school and state: How to liberate America’s families. Fairfax, VA: The Future of Freedom Foundation. 